Optimal Locating of Urban Parks Using GIS and Genetic Algorithm (Case Study: Samawah City, Iraq)

One of the important issues in urban management is locating of urban parks. Urban parks, as one of the most important public service spaces in the city, have a great role in promoting the social, cultural, economic and environmental conditions of urban areas. Optimization can be considered as an effective tool for this problem. The key factors to achieve a successful public park are accessibility and appropriate link between different features of urban structures. Therefore, it is necessary to identify effective criteria and appropriate tools in urban park site locating. The purpose of this paper is optimal locating of urban parks sites in the city of Samawah (Iraq) using Geo-spatial information system and genetic algorithms. To this end, objective functions include; minimize population movement distances and homogeneous distribution of people in proportion to the capacity of parks. Based on the proposed method and considered criteria; Land use, distance from urban transportation network, distance from rivers, population density and distance from noise (factories, etc.), four suitable areas for the construction of a park in the city of Samawah were determined.Scrutinizing of the characteristics of the determined sites for the construction of the urban parks, the high capability of the genetic algorithm in this application was proved. The northern part of the river has high population density. The genetic algorithm has chosen a location between the eastern and western blocks from the all candidates to cover the population demand. In the southern part of the river; three locations have been proposed for the construction of urban parks. The first and most important location is located in the central and high densely populated part of the city, where the existing barren land has provided ideal conditions for the construction of urban park. This location is the best option for building a park due to its proximity to various land use, proximity to building blocks and the densely populated area, as well as ideal access to the transportation network.  Third location; it includes the barren land covers to the west of the citychr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s residential area. Due to its proximity to the river and urban blocks, this location is a suitable option for the construction of public parks. Fourth case; it is located in the southern part of the region. This location is one of the best locations for park construction due to its proximity to different land uses. The proposed method and results could provide valuable information to managers when locating urban parks in Samawah City.